Back to scrappy

Getting back to my comfort zone - doing things over planning.

I like everyone else has spent a bunch of time with LLMs for a long time now, so given chatGPTs new history update I wanted to try and get some insights. I tried a couple of generic 'what are my strengths/weaknesses' prompts and got back equally low effort responses. Another reminder that LLMs are only as good as the inputs you give them.

Anyway, I iterated a bit and came up with a prompt to identify my most critical flaw/bottleneck that is limiting my growth or success: The prompt was set up to deliver the following:

• Diagnosis - zero in on the one flaw
• Consequences - The how it's limiting my growth - including past examples
• Solution - no nonsense quick shift in thinking to get on the right path

The results were shocking and not shocking at the same time. And by that I mean, initially I was hit for 6, but upon reflection it was also obvious and something a should have spotted - hindsight is a wonderful thing...

Diagnosis

You overcompensate for perceived knowledge gaps by overengineering study plans and preparation, rather than moving faster into deliberate practice and real-world execution.

In other words - I spend all my time crafting a plan, figuring out the road ahead and rarely travel on it. The crazy part is, this really isn't me, I think this has come from using LLMs tbh and having access to these fantastic planning tools. I have become like those productivity people who are more obsessed over their productivity stack than actually being productive. Honestly this felt like a real kick in the balls, but hopefully a turning point.

Consequences

• Slower exposure to real learning curves
• Reduced confidence building. After all, confidence does not come from preparation alone, it comes from small wins and survival in messy real world scenarios.
• Missed momentum - Over planning just slows you down
• Compounding overthinking: - The gap in your mind only grows bigger from planning, as all you are doing is putting more obstacles in your way.
• Lost edge - especially in fast moving spaces like crypto and DeFi. These arenas move quickly, if you are not building or growing you are simply getting left behind.

Solution

The solution is no surprise - build shit. Instead of plan => execute cycles I need execute => learn cycles.

So what that looks like for me is just back to my original scrappy self of playing around and building things, which got me where I ma in the first place. This might be, shipping some smart contracts, putting together technical docs, building lightweight backends and APIs for my projects etc.

Of course, writing this down is just the start. I need to actually follow through, but I am feeling good about it, already started a few small things to knock the dust off and get some quick wins, so I am keen to see how far I can take it.